Monday, December 31, 2007

Fun New Monday's Eve Party

For whatever reason New Year's Day wasn't actually given as a holiday down here this year, so we had to settle for having a big bash on Sunday night to serve in its stead. The gymnasium was all decorated up nicely, with the main decoration being a giant parachute under which most large social functions at Pole are held. All the windows were necessarily blacked out to give it that sufficiently dim atmosphere necessary for a dance. Nobody wants to be seen gyrating in the full light of day, or maybe that's just me. I stuck around to the very end at around 3:30 AM, and was back up at work by 8:00 AM.

Cleaning up that following morning reminded me of all the mornings after the Halloween parties my family used to throw when I was a kid. Gathering the empty bottles and cans, and finding them stashed in all manner of places besides in the trash bins took a while. I also washed up all the glasses and cups that had been taken from the galley so there would be some available for people to use during brunch in the galley.

I got to spend most of the afternoon then doing a multi-hour calibration of an instrument of mine out in the Atmospheric Research Observatory. After dinner I spent a while in the band room playing (well, attempting to play) guitar with Tim, who wowed everybody with his mean licks during the (Near) New Year's Eve Party. I'm going to try and practice the instrument again, which I've done on and off again since high school. I'm pretty rusty right now, but I've still ten months here to keep at it. My first homework assignment is "Horse with No Name" by America, which should be pretty simple as it pretty much has only three chords throughout the entire song.